Common Ground

Whatever happened to integrity in
journalism? In an insert accompanying an article in the Feb. 23,
2001 Wall Street Journal entitled "Sen. Clinton, Democratic Party
Face Heat from Pardons," eight names were listed of persons
receiving pardons, including Almon Braswell and Carlos Vignalis,
convicted respectively of conspiracy to defraud the government and
conspiracy to distribute cocaine, both represented by President
Clinton's brother-in-law, Hugh Rodham; as well as Marc Rich and
Pincus Green, both convicted of tax evasion and trading with the
enem y and both represented by former White House Counsel Jack
Quinn, along with the names of "powerful presidential friends" who
helped the pardon applications.

Salim B. Lewis, a close friend of mine, was
included in the list of pardon recipients, along with my name,
identified as a "former Clinton classmate," suggesting that his
pardon was the product of undue influence or yet another example of
a "scandal" in the waning days of the Clinton
presidency.

This guilt by association diminishes the
value of the pardon received by Mr. Lewis, and falsely suggests
that it was anything other than deserved. The facts are
otherwise.

Mr. Lewis was wrongly prosecuted in the late
1980s by then-U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani for his quixotic
effort to counter the harmful, unethical and now-illegal practice
of short selling prior to a secondary offering. The harm that he
attempted to prevent would have affected others, not himself. He
did not stand to profit from his actions in fact he lost money and
he acted out of purely altruistic motives. His offense, if indeed
it was an offense, was at most de minimis.

But you don't have to take my word for it:
the Wall Street Journal itself, in a lead editorial eleven years
ago, called Mr. Lewis's case one of prosecutorial abuse.

Mr. Lewis ultimately pleaded guilty to a
felony, liquidated his successful arbitrage firm, and served a
sentence of probation during which he almost single-handedly
established a new residential drug treatment program in Mendham for
adolescents. That community service was in essence a continuation,
albeit coerced, of an exemplary life that the late U.S. District
Judge Mary Johnson Lowe recognized at his sentencing as
demonstrating a concern for others, in particular for others "less
fortunate than himself."

As for the pardon application, I urged Mr.
Lewis to let us proceed; he did not initiate it. Former U.S.
Attorney General Nicholas deB. Katzenbach undertook to serve as
counsel of record for the application, because of his own high
regard for Mr. Lewis. I submitted a character affidavit.

We both represented Mr. Lewis on a pro bono
publico basis, without compensation.. The pardon application was
filed early last year with the Pardon Attorney, and was the subject
of an extensive FBI background investigation. It went through all
the proper channels, and neither I nor Mr. Katzenbach ever spoke to
President Clinton about its pendency.

Indeed, we did not even know that the
application had reached the White House until the list of
presidential pardons was released. I should also note that other
than a $500 check during the 1992 primary campaign Mr. Lewis has
never made a political contribution to President Clinton or to his
library or to his wife; moreover, the three local newspapers that
he and his wife once owned endorsed Senator Robert Dole in the
presidential campaign four years ago.

Mr. Lewis's pardon was based on the merits
of the application, not on my putative relationship with President
Clinton. If anyone deserved a pardon, Mr. Lewis did.

For that matter, as the Wall Street Journal
pointed out eleven years ago, Mr. Lewis should never have been
prosecuted in the first place.

(Editor's Note: Eakeley, a Democrat,
is a lawyer in private practice in New Jersey. He is a former first
assistant attorney general of New Jersey. His column appears here
the first and third week of the month.)

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In recent weeks, Long Hill Township and Watchung Borough passed ordinances allowing their police departments to be able to apply for surplus equipment from the Department of Defense. Long Hill recently procured a Humvee to use in times of flooding, which Watchung states as the reason they are getting into the program. However, in cities around the country, police forces have used the program to obtain military gear, such as weapons and armor.
For more background, go to the link below
http://www.newjerseyhills.com/echoes-sentinel/news/watchung-police-department-hopes-to-receive-equipment-from-department-of/article_12ad002a-92b3-5449-a2cc-4b2cf0ce4339.html